Services

November 01, 2017

Hilton Domestic Operating Company Inc. has agreed to pay $700,000 after data security breaches exposed more than 350,000 credit card numbers in two separate breaches in 2015.

The New York Attorney General’s Office investigation, conducted along with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, showed that Hilton didn’t provide consumers with timely notice and didn’t maintain reasonable data security.

“Businesses have a duty to notify consumers in the event of a breach and protect their personal information as securely as possible,” said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. “Lax security practices like those we uncovered at Hilton put New Yorkers’ credit card information and other personal data at serious risk.”

October 26, 2017

If you’re like me, you get dozens of calls from people saying your computer is infected and they’ll fix it right away for you. There's good news. The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against two tech support scams.

The defendants contacted consumers through phone calls or displayed advertisements on their computers designed to resemble pop-up security alerts from Microsoft, Apple, or other technology companies, according to lawsuits filed by the FTC. These ads warned consumers that their computers were infected with viruses, had been hacked, or otherwise compromised, and urged them to immediately call a toll-free number for assistance.

When consumers called, they were connected to a call center and pitched by telemarketers who claimed to be affiliated with well-known technology companies. Consumers were told that in order to diagnose the problem, they had to provide the telemarketers with remote access to their computer.

October 25, 2017

Deutsche Bank will pay $220 million in a 45-state settlement for fraudulent conduct involving the manipulation of U.S. Dollar and the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR and other benchmark interest rates. Benchmark interest rates affect financial instruments worth trillions of dollars and have a widespread impact on global markets and consumers because LIBOR may determine how much they’ll be paid on their investments.

“We will not tolerate fraudulent, manipulative or collusive conduct that interferes with or undermines confidence in our financial markets,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “Large financial institutions, like all other market participants, have to abide by the rules.”

From 2005-2010, a panel of 16 banks made USD LIBOR submissions that were supposed to reflect borrowing rates in the interbank market. A daily LIBOR rate was calculated by averaging the middle eight submissions.

October 24, 2017

As I predicted, the Trump presidency and Republican Congress aren’t going to be good for consumers.

The Senate leadership is pushing a vote Tuesday on whether to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s arbitration rule.

Forced arbitration clauses that are buried in the fine print of take-it-or-leave-it contracts may be the single most important tool used by predatory banks, payday lenders, credit card companies, and other financial institutions to cheat and defraud their customers, Public Citizen, a citizen advocacy group, said. These clauses push customer disputes into secretive arbitration proceedings that are rigged to favor financial companies and conceal wrongdoing from regulatory authorities.

October 12, 2017

Two companies operating under the name “FDAA,” a service provider, and their owners are being sued for falsely presenting FDAA as being affiliated with the federal government. The lawsuit also alleges that FDAA’s so-called “debt validation” programs violates the law by falsely promising to eliminate consumers’ debts and improve their credit scores in exchange for thousands of dollars in advance fees.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lawsuit seeks to end the deceptive practices, return money to harmed consumers, and impose penalties.

“FDAA and its owners lied to financially vulnerable consumers to line their pockets with cash,” said Richard Cordray, director of the bureau.

The companies being sued are Federal Debt Assistance Association LLC and Financial Document Assistance Administration Inc. along with Clear Solutions Inc., which processed consumer payments for the FDAA companies and provided other services.

October 11, 2017

Tuesday, I was having a pretty good day. I visited a friend, went to an acupuncture treatment, and stopped by Fred Meyer to return some organic blueberries and strawberries that were old and tasteless.

When I came out of Fred Meyer, I saw a ding in my car that looked like someone shot it with a BB gun. Yikes.

I took a few photos and went back into Fred Meyer to see what they'd do, if anything. No, the customer service representative said, someone else - she couldn't remember who - owns the parking lot. After looking in her file, then paging someone, she finally found the name of the owner of the parking lot, TIEG Properties.

October 06, 2017

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took the first step this week toward ending debt traps by finalizing new consumer protections for loans where consumers are required repay all or most of the debt at once. These loans include shorter-term loans such as payday and auto title loans, and longer-term loans with balloon payments.

It requires lenders to determine upfront whether people can afford to repay their loans.

The bureau found that many people who take out these loans end up repeatedly paying expensive charges to roll over or refinance the same debt. The rule also stops lenders’ repeated attempts to take payments from a borrower’s bank account, a practice that racks up fees and can lead to account closure.

“The CFPB’s new rule puts a stop to the payday debt traps that have plagued communities across the country,” said Richard Cordray, director of the bureau. “Too often, borrowers who need quick cash end up trapped in loans they can’t afford. The rule’s commonsense ability-to-repay protections prevent lenders from succeeding by setting up borrowers to fail.”

October 02, 2017

Following a reported breach of the personal information of over 145 million consumers, including their dates of birth and Social Security Numbers, U.S. PIRG has compiled an interactive map (bit.ly/pirgfreezemap) showing that only a minority of consumers nationwide have access to free credit freezes to protect themselves from new account identity theft.

“It’s time for Congress to give consumers the right to protect their own information from new account identity theft without paying to do so,” said Mike Litt, consumer advocate for U.S. PIRG. “Free freezes are important because you need to pay fees to all three credit bureaus to be sure all the doors to your credit report are closed to identity theft.”

Among the key findings of a U.S. PIRG analysis of the practices of the big three credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - which are subject to credit freeze laws in 50 states and D.C., are the following:

September 29, 2017

If you’re like most consumers, including myself, you are probably still wondering what to do about the Equifax data breach of 143 million consumers’ data.

The New York Attorney General Eric suggested calling Equifax to determine if they’ve have been affected by the breach. I tried to call the phone number twice and was referred both times to the Equifax website. When I went to the Equifax website, they wanted some of my personal information. I didn’t continue because I didn’t trust Equifax’s ability to keep further information about me safe.

Mike Litt, consumer advocate for U.S. PIRG, said Equifax and other credit bureaus have fought for years against the right to freeze credit reports and then demanded fees to do it.